Car Amplifiers?

Jade Ohno: ok here is the thing if you buy a brand name amp such as Rockford Fosgate , Orion , Crossfire, JL audio, , you will notice that a rockford amp that is 100x2 rms @ 4 om will pound your subwoofers better than a generic amp that is 600 wats rms such as ,Jensen,Baja, sony xplod, or aany other amp you buy at walmart , And The Rockford amps dont blow up as often as the cheap amps so it is worth the extra money when you buy the brand name amps such as rockford fosgate ... I would never buy them brand new they are too expensive look on ebay at used amps .. so basically a brand name amp will push 2 or 3 times the power of what its says it will in rms .. but it will say 100 watts rms 200 max at 2om bridge you want to bridge you subwoofers it also helps to buy Dual voice coil subs "DVC" You can wire them up to 8,4,2,1, 1/2 om to match with your amps specs ..so basicly in a short answer buy the brand name amps they will last as long as your car does when all the ch! eap ones do is cut out , heat up , and break, I used to install car audio for a living and I would never use a cheap amp...Show more

Tereasa Sorensen: Ok first off in car audio you get what you pay for.A cheap amp that says 600x2 is more thand likly a 60 watts x2 rather then 600x2.Or like when you see a amp and it says 1000 watts on the top and is only 200 bucks. Its more like 50 watts x2 making it a 100 watt amp.Thats how they get you to buy one.When really if you just look at the specs it will tell you the truth.To put it simpler figure 1 dollar per watt is what it usally means.So a real 500 watt amp is going to be 500 bucks.Now when you buy an amp make sure that you get the true wattage of the amp if you look in the fine print of the specs of an amp you will see this for example.500 watts x 2at 14.4 volts rather than 12 volts this means that the amp will perform 500 watts X 2 if the ampage stays at 14.4 volts which in a factory car that doesnt have an extra battery! and a high out put alternator this will not be producing the ! proper wattage unless there is a high output alternater in place.The amp will cause the lights to dim at night because of the current draw on an amp.Many people still add a big amp to there car even though this draws current from the cars electrical system.My thoughts on this is it will wear out the alternator or battery sooner then it should.I know this from first hand intsalling systems in cars for the public.Ok now onto ohms.If you wish to have an amp run to 4 ohms then you must have 2 speakers that are 8 ohms this brings the impetance of the amp down to 4 ohms and you get the 500x2 that you are looking for.You cant do this unless you have 8 ohm speakers.Ok now amp brands Rockford Fosgate is a company that has been around for over 20 years and they are one of the best companies to deal with as far as amps go.There are many more that are also as good as they are some a little more expesive.The most inportant thing is to figure this do I want to make big boom or do i want ! to be able to make unsterstand what i am listening to.This is where you have to look on the amp and see if the amp that you want has a built in crossover on it so you can tune it to the type of speakers that you want to.im guess you want to put this amp onto a set of subs.Then you will have to adjust the built in crossover to 80hz and below so you can get thebest beats of your music.Make sure that your not over powering your front speakers with this set up that way you dont have more bass the treble in you music.Good luck and hope this helps....Show more